Ajaya the Vampire Slayer
by Alkaline2k2
Summary: A continuation of The Seventh Slayer by Kantayra. Set in the year 2058, Ajaya the Vampire Slayer is one of the newest operatives of SCBI Tokyo. *WIP: Just the Prologue so far*
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own none of the Mutant Enemy characters. Joss owns them all and I assure everyone that I am getting no money whatsoever from this story.

Author's Note: This story takes place as part of Kantayra's Seventh Slayer Universe. If you haven't read The Seventh Slayer, then I suggest you do that first. Not just because this story is the sequel to that story, but just because it kicks all forms of ass. Trust me, I wouldn't want to continue someone else's story unless it was that awesome.

* * *

Ajaya the Vampire Slayer

Prologue

Todd Smartt was not the kind of person who was easily made nervous. Normally, he presented himself with a very calm demeanor. However, it was a mix of anticipation and excitement that had somehow caused his nerves to go into overdrive. Tapping his foot, he looked up at the clock on the wall for what could have been the hundredth time.

Todd watched as a second ticked by on the clock. He waited in vain for another second to tick by. The hand remained still. He began to slowly count in his head. He got to six before the hand inched forward again. Todd took a deep breath and put his head down. He performed a mental exercise that he had known since he was ten years old. Finishing, he looked around him at the crowded Liverpool Airport. The crowds moved around at a very normal pace.

Sitting up and throwing his blonde head back, Todd let out a long sigh of relief. The tall, slim twenty-year old had always been a very patient person. Currently, he noticed that more anxious he became, the more his nerves fled the scene.

"Think fast." Todd heard a familiar working class English accent and turned his head in time to see a set of keys about two inches from his head. With incredible reflexes, Todd grabbed the keys out of the air before they connected with his face.

"Reflexes are just as sharp as ever," a young man about the same age as Todd commented on the results of his impromptu test. He had light brown hair and was a few inches shorter than Todd but seemed to have slightly more muscle mass.

"You're late," Todd said to the Englishman.

"Nice to see you too," he said in response. "Sorry we can't all be blessed with a mystical stick up our arse that lets us be unbelievably anal about little things like punctuality."

The two men stared at each other for a few seconds, thick tension between them. Then, suddenly, a grin cracked on both of their faces and they embraced like two brothers who hadn't seen each other in years.

"Good to see you, Rocky," Todd said to his friend after they let each other go.

"You too, mate," Rocky said as he sat down in the seat next to Todd's. "How was your flight?"

"I got a window seat, but I was next to a guy who should have just bought two seats," Todd explained as he took his seat.

"Rough deal," Rocky sympathized for his friend. He looked across at the clock on the wall and then down to his watch. "I guess I'm not the only one who's late. Their plane should have gotten here 45 minutes ago."

Todd nodded in agreement. He poked his head up and looked towards the terminal where people were beginning to enter the airport. "I think they're here," Todd said as he again stood up, slinging a backpack over his shoulder.

The two friends walked toward the unloading area and looked through the large crowd of disembarking passengers, searching for a familiar face. They spotted two such faces just as the bulk of the people were beginning to crowd the area.

"Well, well, well," Dade Bradford said, happiness evident on his face, "what do you think, Heath? From the looks of their lack of scars, they've been in about three, maybe four battles. Oh wait, maybe I was wrong about Rocky. He looks really beat up around his…oh wait, no, that's just his nose."

Dade gave Rocky a smile to let him know he was kidding and then hugged him. Heath did the same with Todd. Dade wasn't as tall as Todd, but he was taller than Rocky. His hair was a brownish red and his face seemed like it was almost always sporting a carefree grin. Heath was about as tall as Todd and had very dark hair. Although he wasn't always grinning like an idiot, his expression was a reflection of his kindness.

"So," Dade said as he clapped his hands together. "What's the plan for this evening?"

Rocky gave him a sly smile. "Come on, like you don't already know."

* * *

The pub that the four traveled to wasn't exactly a large establishment. Although not very crowded, there were a fair number of people inside. The interior wasn't run down, but it wasn't the fanciest inn of the area. Rocky frequented this bar for just that reason. He couldn't stand the ultra-trendy places that seemed to be popping up on every street corner. While Heath and Rocky sat at the far end of the bar, Dade stood behind Todd as he played pool.

"Should have known Rocky would do this to me," Dade said as he shook his head. "The first real leave I get from SCBI in two years. You think that I would get the chance to look for a little bit of action that wasn't coming from a vampire or a demon whose name I can't even pronounce. But of course, this is Rocky that we're talking about."

"There're some girls over there," Todd said as he lined up his shot, indicating what direction he was talking about with his head. "I think that they're with their boyfriends, though. I don't think this is exactly a swinging singles place." Todd took his shot and sank the thirteen ball. His opponent and his opponent's buddy each took another long drink of their beers. They didn't exactly look happy about the score of the game.

"Hmmm," Dade said as he took a long look at one of the girls. "Not bad, not bad at all."

Todd looked over at the girl that Dade was eyeing up. She was very attractive with deep brown eyes and long brown hair. The boy who was obviously her boyfriend said something to her, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then walked over towards the bar with his friends.

"Too bad she has a boyfriend," Todd commented as he took another shot, sinking both the ten ball and the fourteen.

"That just makes it more fun," Dade said as he left his friend with a wicked grin. He walked towards the three girls at the table and grabbed the back of one of the empty chairs. "Hey, are you using this chair?"

"No," the girl that Dade had set his sights on told him. "You can take it."

"Thanks," Dade said, as he pulled the chair back and sat down in it, giving the girl a flirtatious smile. She laughed a little while Dade began to do what he did best.

* * *

"So how has life been treating you?" Rocky asked Heath as he took a gulp of his drink.

"Same as it's always been," Heath said, drinking some of his Guinness. "Although actual field work on a team is a bit different than I expected. My brothers and sisters didn't exactly paint the clearest picture."

Rocky nodded his head in agreement. "I know what you mean. Growing up it seemed so huge. Now it's just no big deal."

"The grass is always greener," Heath said without finishing the old phrase.

"So how has your family been?" Rocky and Heath had spent the evening trying to catch up on each other's lives.

"Everyone is scattered all over the place," Heath explained. "Chloe was promoted to a field leader in Capetown. Duncan is staying in Tokyo even though a lot of people are signing on to new assignments. I think my dad has been pulling some strings to keep me out of any seriously dangerous assignments."

Rocky laughed. "I know the feeling. One of the downsides of being from a Scooby family, especially if you are a Scooby baby."

Heath nodded. He looked over at his friend's empty drink and called over the bartender while pulling out some money. "What are you drinking?" Heath asked Rocky.

"Scotch," Rocky told him.

Heath laughed. "What are you, like fifty?"

"What can I say," Rocky said as he took a sip of his new drink. "I learned to drink on my father's knee."

The two laughed together just like they did as they were growing up. Heath and Rocky had been friends for as far back as they could remember. Their quiet demeanors and similar personalities had brought them together at a very early age.

Rocky and Heath's reminiscing was cut short, though, when they heard a loud argument behind them. Heath sighed, knowing what he would turn to see without even having to hear Dade's voice.

"Calm down, buddy," Dade said to a very angry boyfriend. "No need to for everyone to lose their temper."

"You need to stay the Hell away from my girlfriend," the man said back to him in an English accent. He looked to be about twenty five years old and in very good shape.

"That's funny," Dade said, not liking the other man's attitude, "I don't remember seeing your name anywhere on her." He began to look at the girl in a very lewd way. "Not yet at least."

With that last comment the boyfriend had it and swung at Dade's head. Dade easily dodged the blow. The tipsy man tried to hit Dade again, this time coming a little too close for comfort.

"Come on Buddy," Dade said. "Take it easy."

Dade's attacker did not show signs of backing down. Dade continued to back up till he was up against the wall. The jealous boyfriend was coming at him quick with two of his friends right behind him. With a sigh, Dade gave up on his pacifist approach. Blocking his attacker's punch with his forearm, Dade delivered a punch of his own. Although Dade tried his best to suppress his preternatural strength, the blow was still incredibly hard.

Unfortunately, once the boyfriend went down, his two friends as well as some other patrons of the bar started to advance on Dade. Dade took out the two friends with a leg sweep and met another attacker with a jab to the stomach, followed by a blow to the head. As more drunks began to approach him, he found it increasingly tedious to hold back.

While everyone in the bar was now watching the spectacle that Dade was causing, Todd's opponents had gotten sick of him. While Todd was sinking the eight ball, winning his third game in a row, a guy was coming up quick behind him, ready to punch him in the head. While still leaned over, Todd's eye rolled over and caught sight of the man behind him. While the bitter pool player was still in mid swing, Todd swung around, pool cue in hand, and connected with the man's legs, knocking him to the ground. The guy's friend moved to hit Todd too, but with unnatural speed and grace, Todd made short work of him while using the pool cue as a staff. Once both men were on the ground, Todd looked over to Dade who was now incredibly outnumbered. Dropping the pool cue, Todd was at his friend's side before the stick even hit the ground. At the bar, Rocky and Heath were still calmly drinking.

"Think we should get involved?" Heath asked as he set his drink down.

"What's this 'we'?" Rocky asked. "You are the one with the super strength."

Heath didn't look as a man crashed into the bar right next to him. Dade, a little annoyed with Heath and Rocky just idly sitting, had purposed knocked him in their direction. With a sigh, Heath grabbed the man by the collar while he was standing up and head butted him in one fluid motion, leaving the man unconscious. Dropping him to the ground, Heath made his way over to help his friends.

While all of his friends were now outnumbered in an all-out barroom brawl, Rocky continued to sit at the bar staring directly in front of him, occasionally taking a sip from his drink. He listened to the sounds of the fight for a while and then eventually looked down at his watch. He was in the middle of a rather long drink when he noticed that Todd had been tossed against the bar. Looking in the mirror behind the bar, Rocky caught sight of the man running at the disoriented Todd with a bar stool. Without removing the drink from his lips, Rocky held his other hand out behind him. The bar stool that was in the man's hand now flew back into one of his friend's faces.

"Tomorrow is going to be ugly," Rocky said as he reluctantly stood up and joined the fray.

* * *

"I cannot believe you four," Tony Giles screamed at the barroom fighters the next day in his contemporarily decorated office. "Of all the immature, low class acts that you could have committed, it had to be in a way that could become so public."

"Bloody Hell, Uncle Tony," Rocky Giles said to his uncle while rolling his eyes. "Calm down. It's not like we were out there in SCBI uniforms or anything."

Tony Giles glared at his nephew. "No _ Rockefeller_, you're correct. However, when you made the nephew of a Parliament member lose his bowel control, it was a fairly good indication that you were a warlock."

Dade suddenly burst out laughing. "No shit," he said looking towards Rocky, "I didn't see that."

Tony continued, ignoring Dade's outburst. "I've already been contacted by a reporter from CNN asking for my statement on the matter. Hopefully, some of our contacts there will be able to bury the story before it airs. If it makes the airways, Fletcher Price is going to have my nuts in a vice."

For some reason, thinking about Fletcher putting Tony in that uncomfortable position made Heath laugh.

"I don't know why you're laughing, Mr. Angel," Tony turned his attention to Heath. "I would expect more out of you judging from the merit of your family."

Heath Angel didn't have any response for Tony. He was right; no one else in Heath's family would have gotten involved in something so stupid.

Tony let out a long sigh as he sat at his desk. He squeezed the bridge of his nose and looked down at some of the papers in front of him. Suddenly, he knew how to discipline the boys.

"You all need to get back to your rooms and pack up whatever things you unpacked," Tony told them. "I am going to have you reassigned."

Dade was outraged. "You can't do that!" he said to him. "We all just came off two years of probational duty. We deserve some time off."

"You _did_ deserve some time off," Tony said to him, "And you blew it last night. Now you are all going to be transferred to our Tokyo branch. They are in need of new operatives."

The four exchanged looks. They weren't sure if they had heard Tony right. They were going to be stationed together? It was almost too good to be true.

"Wait," Todd said, wanting to make sure that he hadn't misunderstood. "We're all going to be stationed together?"

"It's better if Price deals with you instead of me," Tony said as he began to work on the necessary paper work. "Now get out of my sight before I think of something else to yell at you for."

Without another word, the four left Giles' office. Once they were out in the hall, they let out their excitement over being together again after two years apart.

"The only problem is that I don't know how to speak Chinese," Dade said with a laugh.

"Or Japanese," Rocky corrected with a smile.

* * *

Ajaya the Vampire Slayer paid the taxi driver and practiced her Japanese by thanking him as he dropped her off in front of the SCBI Tokyo compound. Whereas the New York compound looked like a large Victorian mansion, this compound was a large Japanese palace. Picking up all of her bags with her Slayer strength, Ajaya Gupta made her way to the entrance gates, wondering what she would find inside.

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah, I know I already had a note at the beginning. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think of this story. I'm writing it at the same time as my Sunnydale series so I don't know when it will be finished. Anyway, Kantayra's website is in my user profile. Click on my name and go to the official Seventh Slayer website. And although I already mentioned it, please leave me a review if you liked the story. If you didn't like the story, definitely review. I want to know how to make it better.


	2. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I own none of the Mutant Enemy characters. Joss owns them all and I assure everyone that I am getting no money whatsoever from this story.

* * *

Ajaya the Vampire Slayer

Chapter One

"Cordelia, get down!" Angel shouted as he jumped over a gray tentacle while making sure that he didn't lose his grip on the sword in his hand. While still in mid-air, Angel managed to cut deep into the tentacle and fell into a roll while another tentacle came crashing towards him.

"Okay," Cordelia said, very annoyed, as she barely ducked in time to avoid the sweeping tentacle that would have smacked directly with her head. Another tentacle came towards her but, before it could reach her, it was engulfed in a soft yellow light and was forced to the ground. "Who is the moron who turned off the Interdimensional Barrier System?"

"Why don't you ask Liz 'It-will-only-be-for-a-minute-what-could-possibly-happen' Rowan?" A man who looked to be about thirty with dark brown hair and piercing brown eyes asked Cordelia as he leapt into the air. Making it about twenty feet into the air, he dug both of the curved blades in his hands into a swinging tentacle. Building his momentum by swinging back and forth on the tentacle, he pulled the blades out and at the same time propelled himself towards what he could only guess was the head of the demon emerging from the small dimensional disturbance. Before he could get close to the hole in space, another tentacle hit him like a bat connecting with a ball, and he was sent on a collision course with a wall.

"Thanks for covering for me, Duncan," a woman in her mid-twenties with highlighted brown hair said when she suddenly appeared beside Duncan and grabbed him in mid-air. Less than a second after she grabbed him, they both vanished again, this time reappearing on the floor. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you the one that did the code punching to turn off the protocol?"

Duncan spotted another tentacle less than a yard away from them, and with incredible reflexes he grabbed Liz by her shoulders and pulled her to the ground with him. "I wouldn't have done it if I would have known how slow you are at dimension hopping," Duncan retorted to Liz.

"Fight now, blame later," Angel said between swings of his sword. "Someone reactivate the system."

"No good," a tall blonde woman who was also in her early thirties told Angel while she punched away at a keypad on the wall. She closed the panel covering the pad and reclaimed her gun before turning back towards the massive demon. "The system is armed, but it's not going to come back up until the hole is closed."

"Terrific," Cordelia said as she continued to avoid the endless barrage of tentacles. "Liz, can you close the gate?" 

A blue light seemed to stream from Liz's eyes as she looked up towards the hole the creature was half extruding from. The circle also seemed to glow the same blue color. Although the glow became brighter, the hole wasn't shrinking.

"Nope," Liz said as her eyes returned to their normal blue, non-glowing color. "I can't close it while there's still mass inside of it."

"So we either need to get this thing in or out," Angel said while continuing to swing his sword.

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Cordelia said as she managed to get a hand on the end of one of the flailing tentacles. The familiar yellow glow now engulfed Cordelia and passed into the demon. "No good," Cordelia said, her face contorted in concentration. "There's not even a trace of humanity to reach out to." There was sadness in Cordelia's voice as she spoke. Suddenly, she was caught in the side by another tentacle and was pressed against another wall.

"Cordelia!" Angel yelled in concern as he raced towards the former higher being. Swinging his sword from high above his head, he cut through the tentacle that had been trying to crush Cordelia. Catching her breath, Cordelia fell into Angel's arms. "Allison or Fiona or anyone else, now would be a good time to do something."

"You know," another woman in her mid-twenties with strands of blue braided into her blonde hair began to gather a mass of white energy at her finger tips. "It wouldn't hurt you to say please. Or at least ask."

"That's not fair Allison," a vampire with sandy brown hair told the witch while he swung a large battle axe into a tentacle that had been snaking its way towards her. "You know that Angel was tragically born without a sense of humor," he said with a smile as he shifted his features from demon to human.

Allison smiled at Collin's joke as she finally gathered enough energy to pull the demon fully into this dimension. The demon was nothing more than a central orb with one eyeball and a countless mass of tentacles. Supporting itself on its tentacles, the creature was tall enough to have to crouch beneath the fifty foot high ceiling of the entrance hall of SCBI Tokyo.

"It's sealed," Liz said as her eyes flashed blue one final time before once again returning to normal.

"Now we just have to clean up," Angel said once he had made sure that Cordelia was okay.

"I have a clear shot," the woman who had restarted the security system reported as she took aim through her rifle. She pulled the trigger and, just before the projectile could make contact with the eye, the central portion of the demon moved more quickly than anyone would have thought possible.

"Nice try, Rebecca," Duncan said to her while he lost one of his daggers in a swinging tentacle. "Hey!" Duncan said, suddenly outraged. "That's mine!" Duncan ran at full speed and dove towards the tentacle. Grabbing onto the tentacle with one hand, he reclaimed his dagger with the other. "It's my favorite," Duncan said as he wiped the blade clean.

Angel was starting to lose his patience with this demon. Grabbing his sword with both hands, he waited for the right moment before he leapt towards the massive eyeball. Pulling the sword back and preparing to plunge it into the eye, Angel didn't even see the tentacle that wrapped him up a second before he could have delivered the blow.

"Great," Angel said while he struggled to free himself from the grip of the demon. "Mason, do you think you could restrain this thing?"

"I'm growing, I'm growing," Mason said while his body began to stretch and grow. Different parts of his body would grow at different rates which gave him an almost oozing quality. Once he was about fifty feet tall, Mason's features returned to their normal composition and no longer seemed to ooze.

Mason wrapped his massive arms around the creature and held him tight so that he couldn't move. "Oh God," Mason said while he held the demon. "Somebody do something quick, this thing smells even worse up close."

"I'm on it," Rebecca reassured Mason. She was down on one knee loading some sort of capsule into her rifle. "Everybody get down," Rebecca announced as she looked through the scope of her rifle and took aim at the eye. It didn't take long for everyone in the room, with the exception of Mason, to dive to the ground with their hands firmly covering their ears.

"Becky, hold on a second," Mason said with panic in his voice. "Just let me see if I can push him down or knock him out or—"

Rebecca didn't wait for Mason to finish. Once she had the eyeball targeted she pulled the trigger. The capsule, which was slightly larger than a grenade, flew through the air and embedded itself in the demon's eye. There was a moment of silence before the device went off creating a very small scale explosion. When all of the assembled members of SCBI looked up, they discovered that the entrance hall was now littered not only with gray demon parts and black demon blood but also with a green slime.

"God damnit, Becky," Mason, standing at a very normal height of around six feet, said as he stood up from a very large glob of green slime. He was completely covered in the green substance. "You could have at least let me get clear."

"Oh, quit your bitching," Collin said to Mason as he slapped him on the back, sending some of the slime spattering. "You're none the worse for wear."

"It doesn't mean that it wasn't unnecessarily painful," Mason said while shaking his head.

"And the room smells all Masony," Liz commented as she left to go to her room, ringing the slime out of her hair as she went.

"I don't smell!" Mason yelled after Liz as he and Collin left through a door on the opposite side of the hall. He turned to Collin and lowered his voice as they walked through the doorway. "Do I?"

Suddenly, a tone went off in the hall, indicating that there was someone at the door. Cordelia slapped her head. "I almost forgot," she said as she turned to Angel. "Ajaya."

"Well, this should make for an interesting first impression," Angel told Cordelia with a smile.

"More like an accurate first impression," Cordelia added with a laugh. Cordy and Angel walked over to the oversized double doors together and opened the one on the right. Ajaya Gupta looked into the entrance hall and her eyes went wide. "Hello Ajaya," Cordy said while she offered Ajaya her slime-covered hand to shake. "I'm Cordelia. Welcome to SCBI Tokyo."

* * *

Ajaya was playing with a paperclip she had found on the floor of the office she had been led into. When she had first met everyone over in New York, she had been nowhere near this nervous. Of course, when she had met everyone there, she had had Buffy with her to guide her through the process. Now she felt like she was doing everything by herself.

Cordelia had seemed very nice. She had also been very apologetic when she had to excuse herself to get cleaned up. Ajaya understood. After all, she was covered head to foot in green slime as well as other things that Ajaya couldn't even begin to try to identify. She made a mental note to find out what had happened in the entrance hall.

Ajaya looked around the office. Although it wasn't really messy, it definitely didn't strike her as well organized. She wondered what the owner of this office was like. She bit her tongue while she tried to remember what Cordelia said his name was. It was something like Keith or Keither or something like that. Ajaya wished that she wasn't so horrible with names.

Looking down at the desk, Ajaya noticed what could have been a name plate behind a few data pads and an impossibly high stack of papers. Ajaya needed to stand up in order to look over the papers and down at the plate. In black letters on a gold background, the name written on the piece of wood was Keifer Price.

"Keifer _Price_!" Ajaya said while she did a double take at the name plate. Although Ajaya knew that SCBI had a large emphasis on family, this had to be one of the coincidences. In a world wide organization as large as SCBI, there had to be a few incidents where people just happened to have the same last name.

"See anything interesting?" Ajaya jumped nearly a foot when she was confronted with an unfamiliar voice. She looked to the source of the voice and saw a man in his mid-forties. He had dark brown hair that was a little unruly and he looked as if he hadn't shaved in days. He was wearing a suit but the coat was underneath his arm. The sleeves of his untucked blue dress shirt were rolled up, the neck unbuttoned, and his tie remained untied around his neck. Despite all of this, he had an uncanny resemblance to Fletcher Price. He was Fletcher Price after waking up on the wrong side of the bed for two weeks straight, but he was still Fletcher Price.

"I'm sorry," Ajaya quickly apologized. "I was just looking around."

Keifer flashed her a warm smile to let her know that he wasn't offended. "Have a seat," he told her as he motioned for her to sit in the chair in front of his desk. Ajaya sat down but still couldn't really get over the fact that the person in front of her was even distantly related to the almost unbearably stiff Fletcher Price.

"Ajaya Gupta, right?" Keifer asked Ajaya. She nodded. "I'm Keifer Price. I'm in charge of this division of SCBI." Keifer reached over his desk and extended his hand towards Ajaya.

"I'm pleased to meet you," Ajaya politely responded as she shook Keifer's hand.

"So you've met my brother Fletch," Keifer said as he sat down. He kept his eyes on the drawer he was rummaging though. "What a ponce, right?" When Keifer made the comment about his brother, he looked up and gave Ajaya a wink. Ajaya couldn't help but giggle.

"According to his policies I should have about a dozen or so official looking people flanking my side," Keifer continued to talk while going through all the different materials on his desk. He read over several different papers while he spoke, occasionally signing something or entering information into a data pad. "But since a lot of the higher ranking staff is currently busy scrubbing Atlore demon plasma off of themselves right now, we're just going to skip that part." Ajaya was surprised at how well Keifer could talk to her and go over his paperwork at the same time.

"Besides," Keifer said as he looked up at Ajaya again, "That's all just a bunch of pomp and show. Fletch just likes to hear himself talk." Keifer finally came across a data pad that had Ajaya's information on it. "And judging from your file, it's even more unnecessary than usual." Keifer put the pad into a growing pile of things that he didn't need to worry about. He had read her information a while ago. He began to go through the few remaining unsorted items on his desk.

"A level five fighter after only a few weeks," Keifer commented on Ajaya's abilities. "It's no wonder the council gives us such Hell over you Slayers."

"Did you work for the council, too?" Ajaya spoke for the first time.

"For a while," Keifer told Ajaya as he got through the last of his paperwork. "But I quit a long time ago." He thought about it for a second. "Way before Fletcher jumped on the bandwagon."

"Hah." Ajaya turned around when she heard another voice behind her. Standing in the doorway was a girl a few years older than herself. She had a dark complexion and dark hair with red streaks running through it. "No need to lie to the girl Kiefer. There's a big difference between quitting and getting kicked out."

"You were fired from the Watchers?" Ajaya asked Keifer.

"It was a mutual decision that my talents would better serve me in a different field," Keifer said as he made a small gesture with his hands.

"Please," the girl said as she sat down in the chair next to Ajaya, rolling her eyes. She turned to talk to Ajaya. "He was expelled from the academy when he was seventeen. What was it, Keifer? Something about turning a Mystics Professor's hair green?"

"I maintain that he dyed his own hair," Keifer said with a smile that let Ajaya know that Keifer was more than capable of pulling a stunt like that. "Ajaya Gupta, this is Paige Gunn."

"It's nice to meet you," Ajaya said as she shook hands with Paige.

"Pleasure is all mine," Paige told Ajaya. "We don't get too many Slayers out here."

"Since our more senior agents are currently _ occupied_," Keifer said with another sly grin. He was currently tucking in his shirt and tying his tie. "Paige is going to show you around the compound."

"Be glad that Angel couldn't do it," Paige told Ajaya. "You would have had to stop about every five seconds while he pointed to some work of art or column or something and explain in unbelievably boring detail who made it, what era it came from, and a whole lot of other things that you'll never need to know."

Ajaya laughed but deep down she knew that she would have been interested. Of course, she had thought the same thing the first time she had met Xeris.

"Everyone in New York told me bits and pieces about Angel," Ajaya told Keifer and Paige.

"We know much more hilarious stories and we can tease him a lot better," Keifer told Ajaya as he stood up and walked towards a mirror on the wall of his office. He grabbed an industrial-sized bottle of hair gel and poured some into his hands. "I stole this from his room this morning."

"That's our Angel," Paige said with a laugh. "The powers of a vampire, the soul of a champion, and hair that defies gravity."

Ajaya laughed out loud yet again. "That's about all I've heard about him," Ajaya told them. "That and that he is always brooding."

Keifer and Paige both started cracking up at Ajaya's comment. "It's unbelievable," Paige said as she wiped a tear from her eye. "He won't admit it, but we _know_ that he's jealous that he's not the only vampire with a soul anymore. It's been over fifty years, and he's still pissed about it."

"Well, on that note, I'm going to end this introduction," Keifer said as he stood behind his desk putting his suit coat on. Ajaya couldn't believe that the well-dressed man who stood before her now was the same one she had met a few minutes ago. "I have to run to another meeting," Keifer told Ajaya as he shook her hand. "It was a pleasure meeting you, though, and I'll call you down later for a slightly more formal meeting."

"That just means that he won't be dressing himself during half the meeting," Paige told Ajaya after Ajaya had said goodbye and they had left Keifer's office. "So you're coming from the New York office, right?" The Indian Slayer nodded. "So you met Fletcher, right? Can you believe that they're related?"

Ajaya laughed. "If it weren't for the fact that they're almost physically identical, I wouldn't believe it. I can't wait to tell my friend Isabelle about him."

Paige grinned. "Do you have a lot of friends over at New York?"

"Yeah," Ajaya told her. "A lot of my best friends are there."

"They're good people," Paige told her as they were beginning Ajaya's tour of SCBI Tokyo. "A little over-sexed at times, but good people."

* * *

Todd whistled as he got his first look at the SCBI Tokyo compound.

"You said it," Dade said to his friend. "Well, actually you whistled it, but you get the idea."

Todd, Dade, Heath, and Rocky, all with bags and hands, made their way to the door of the palace which SCBI resided in. Ringing the doorbell, a very familiar face greeted them on the other side of the door.

"Well, look what the cat drug in," Duncan Angel smiled at his younger brother. Heath smiled at him and gave him a hug. "How have you been?"

"Good," Heath said to his brother as everyone walked into the now clean entrance hall. "Fairly busy."

"As I've heard," Duncan said as he gave his brother a teasing grin. "As everyone here as heard."

Heath sighed, hoping what he already knew wasn't true. "Everyone?" he asked his brother.

"Everyone," Duncan confirmed with a nod and a grin. "Even Angel."

"Fantastic," Heath said sarcastically.

Duncan turned towards Rocky who was eyeing some of the artwork. There were green smudges on the painting that confused Rocky slightly.

"And I suppose that you had absolutely nothing to do this bar fight?" Duncan asked Rocky. Even though he was ten years older than Rocky, Duncan knew about the Brit's drinking habits.

"Not sure why you would think that," Rocky told Duncan. Rocky had never really cared much for Heath's eldest brother. "I wouldn't think you would understand concepts like a bar or fun, what with the more pressing matter of brown-nosing taking priority. Oh, and I heard that you're a team leader here. Congratulations. I wonder how that happened."

"Thank you Rocky," Duncan said, ignoring his sarcasm. "I am field leader of Sigma Team. Oh, and guess what team that you got assigned too?" Rocky's face was immediately purged of its small smile and shifted into a look of disbelief. Duncan smiled to himself as he turned and began to walk towards the door. "Follow me," Duncan said as he began to walk towards Keifer's office. "Keifer has been waiting all day to bust your balls."

Everyone's good moods were suddenly deflated as they begrudgingly followed Duncan through the door.

"What's that smell?" Dade asked Duncan as they were leaving.

* * *

Author's Note: Come on, you know you want to review...


	3. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I own none of the Mutant Enemy characters. Joss owns them all and I assure everyone that I am getting no money whatsoever from this story.

* * *

Ajaya the Vampire Slayer

Chapter Two

"Impressed?" Paige asked Ajaya as they waited for the elevator to take them from the training area up to the ground floor.

"I would go more with stunned or awed," Ajaya said to Paige with a laugh. "Regardless, I was thoroughly impressed."

"That's the typical first impression," Paige told Ajaya as they stepped into the elevator. "Now the second impression, the one you get after your first training session, that also has a very typical response."

"I'm guessing it's not nearly as positive," Ajaya said

"Not in the strictest sense," Paige explained to Ajaya. They walked out of the elevator when they were back on the main floor. "And speaking of first impressions, get ready to make a lot."

"Where are we going now?" Ajaya wondered.

"The gathering room," Paige explained. "It's where most of the Fang Gang hangs out."

"Fang Gang?" Ajaya had no clue what Paige meant.

Paige laughed a little. "It's a nickname for the agents of SCBI Tokyo," she informed Ajaya. "Mostly because of Angel, but also because a large part of our staff here of the vampire persuasion."

"How interesting," Ajaya said quietly as they entered the enormous gathering room.

The ceiling of the gathering room had a large dome in the middle of the room which was painted with a scene that Ajaya guessed was part of some Asian mythology that she didn't know. The room was littered with statues and paintings. Also along the walls were couches and chairs and the occasional coffee table. In the center of the room was a large circular couch. Although there was no one standing in the room, there were practically no empty seats in the entire room.

"Come on," Paige said as she took Ajaya by the hand. "We'll start with the people that you know." Paige flashed some grins at a few people who looked her way as she walked through with the girl that they had never seen before. Ajaya looked in the direction that Paige was taking them and saw a few couches and chairs arranged in a rectangle around a coffee table. Sitting with about a half dozen other people was Cordelia.

"Oh, hi!" Cordelia said to Ajaya as she saw her and Paige approaching.

"Ajaya you know Cordelia right?" Paige tried to do the talking for Ajaya.

"It's just Cordy," Cordy said as she reached over to shake Ajaya's hand. "And it's good to finally meet you while I'm slime free. Actually, it's good to just be slime free." Cordy offered Ajaya a friendly smile and Ajaya chuckled slightly. "So have you see all of our happy little home?"

Ajaya nodded. "It's very different from New York."

"Different places and different people," Cordy agreed. "But it's still the same mission." Ajaya smiled and nodded but then there was an awkward silence between the group. "Oh right," Cordy said with a smile. "You don't know anyone."

Cordy motioned for Ajaya to come sit by her on the couch. "This is Allison Hendricks," Cordy motioned to the young witch with blue and blonde hair sitting in the chair to her left. "Over here we have Collin and Matthew," Cordy indicated two young men directly across from them. "You're going to notice that a lot of vampires have this whole Madonna/Prince thing going on with the one name only thing." Ajaya had noticed that most vampires really weren't big with last names.

"That's Liz Rowan," Cordy continued with her introduction. Liz gave Ajaya a smile. "You probably met about half of her family over in New York." Ajaya thought hard but she couldn't remember any Rowans. Liz did look familiar. "Dawn, Richard, or David?" Cordy offered some names to help jog Ajaya's memory.

"Oh!" Ajaya said. "You're a Salvatore?"

Liz nodded her head. "My mother is a Salvatore," Liz explained.

"Next to Liz is Rebecca Finn," Cordy pointed to Rebecca before she pointed at the green demon in a very loud suit who was sitting to Ajaya's right. "And that is Krevlorneswath of the Deathwok Clan."

"My friends call me Lorne," Lorne said as he took Ajaya's hand and kissed the back of it. "And you are?"

"Ajaya Gupta," Ajaya introduced herself to the assembled demon hunters.

"And what do you bring to the party?" Rebecca asked Ajaya. She didn't understand her question. "What can you do? Are you a witch or a demon or something?"

"She's one of the Chosen Seven," Cordelia explained.

"A Slayer," Collin said, obviously impressed. Ajaya blushed slightly.

Cordelia looked down at her watch and sighed. "Okay, this is bordering on excessive this time," Cordelia was slightly annoyed. "I mean seriously, this is bad even for him."

"Who?" Ajaya asked.

No one had a chance to answer the question because at that moment Angel stormed into the area where they were sitting. "Okay," Angel said as he flashed all of them suspicious looks. "Who did it?"

"What are you talking about?" Cordy asked Angel.

Angel hesitated for a moment. He obviously didn't want to say it out loud. "Someone took my gel again," Angel said quietly.

Everyone, with the exception of Angel and Ajaya, became instantly hysterical.

"You have got to be kidding me," Cordy was getting ready to dig into Angel yet again. "You are the biggest split personality on the planet! On one hand you obviously stay up all night making sure that you have your scowl down to a science. You can't go a single day without depressing at least twenty people. You might as well only have one outfit because lord knows you make no effort to add any variety to your wardrobe. But despite your extreme apathy towards all things fashionable, or possibly in spite of it, you spend more time in the bathroom in the morning than me. How can you possibly justify that because honestly, Angel, I would like to hear it?"

Halfway through Cordelia's in-depth analysis of everything that was wrong with Angel, Paige had taken Ajaya by the wrist and led her out of the gathering room and towards the entrance hall. They had both been trying to contain their laughter during Cordelia's outburst and by the time they got to the entrance hall they were both cracking up.

"What's so funny?" Duncan asked Paige as he and Mason walked into the entrance hall.

"Another installment of _ Everything That is Wrong with Angel_ by Cordelia Chase," Paige said with a final laugh.

Duncan rolled his eyes. He looked past Paige and noticed Ajaya. "Who's the recruit?" Duncan asked.

"This is Ajaya the Vampire Slayer," Paige introduced Ajaya.

"Pleased to meet you Ajaya," Duncan said to Ajaya. "I'm Duncan Angel and this is Mason Biggs." Mason gave Ajaya a nod hello as Duncan introduced himself.

"Duncan Angel?" Ajaya questioned. "As in the other Angel?"

"One in the same," Duncan told her. "I'm his great grandson."

"So Angel is his last name?" Ajaya asked Duncan.

"No," Duncan said. He thought about it for a second. "Well I guess kind of. Actually his name is Liam."

"Liam Angel?" Ajaya asked.

"Technically it's Geraldo Angel," Duncan said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Technically?" Ajaya asked.

"Technically," Duncan confirmed.

"But actually it's Liam," Ajaya was trying to understand all of this.

"Basically," Duncan said.

"Okay," Paige said as she began to lead Ajaya past the two men, "I'm getting sick of all of these '-lys.' We need to go back up to Keifer's office."

"Maybe you'll get to catch the tail end of Heath's meeting," Mason said with a grin.

"The barroom brawlers have arrived?" Paige asked.

"Yep," Duncan told her. "If you hurry you might get to catch the last bits of their meeting with Keifer."

"Let's go then," Paige said to Ajaya as they were leaving the entrance hall.

"What's that smell?" Ajaya asked Paige while they were leaving. Mason's eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"Your laughing is not helpful," Mason told Duncan. Duncan was too busy laughing to reply.

* * *

Off the top of his head, Heath could think of about a thousand other places that he would rather be than in Keifer's office. For the last fifteen minutes, Keifer had done nothing but mock, tease, harass, and make fun of Heath, Rocky, Dade, and Todd. It was better than getting yelled at by Tony Giles, but it was beginning to border on excessive.

"Okay," Keifer said, still grinning from his latest crack. "I guess I've said just about all I want to say." Keifer grabbed four folders from his desk and tossed them to the boys. He also opened his drawer and pulled out four keys on two key rings. "Here are your assignments. Your rooms are in the east wing on the fourth floor. You can decide who is rooming with whom. You can go get settled in." The four of them got up and walked towards the door. "And if you're going back out to the bar tonight, make sure you call me first so I can come along." Keifer couldn't help but make one last joke.

"I liked it when we were getting yelled at better," Todd said as he looked through his folder. "There's something about getting laughed at by your supervisor that is just so unsettling."

"Yeah," Heath agreed while he held both sets of keys. "What are we going to do about these rooms?"

"I am not rooming with Dade," Rocky said plainly. "You're my friend, but I do not feeling like being exiled from my bed while you're with some girl."

"I just had to room with Dade while we were stationed out of Los Angeles," Heath said.

"Looks like it's just me and you," Dade said as he put an arm around Todd.

"You try to have sex with someone even once while I'm sleeping and I swear to God, Dade, I'll piss on everything you own," Todd threatened Dade.

"Fair enough," Dade said with a grin.

"Bollocks," Rocky said as he flipped through his folder. "Duncan wasn't lying. I did get assigned to Sigma Team."

"Ouch," Dade agreed.

"Open up your folder," Rocky told Dade. "You're in the same boat."

"You've got to be kidding me," Dade said as he cracked open his folder. "Well, at least we'll be together. What do you have, Todd?"

"Epsilon Team," Todd told them. "Espionage."

"That's good at least," Heath said to his friend. "You've been training for espionage for a while now."

"Yeah," Todd said. "It should be pretty cool. How about you Heath?"

Heath was the last to open his folder. His first reaction to reading the information within was that there had to be some kind of mistake. There's no way that they were going to put him on Alpha Team.

"Well?" Rocky asked.

"Alpha Team," Heath told him.

"Wow," Todd was impressed. "Looks like Tokyo has some confidence in you."

Heath nodded but he didn't really look pleased with his assignment.

"Why the long face?" Dade asked Heath.

"Let me guess," Rocky said, "Angel is the team leader?" Heath nodded. "Well that won't be too much pressure now."

* * *

"So what do you think of our facilities?" Keifer asked Ajaya who was sitting in the seat directly across from his desk. Paige sat in the seat next to her.

"It's very nice," Ajaya said. "It seems like I'm going to like it here a lot."

Keifer smiled. "I'm glad to hear that." Keifer handed Ajaya a folder that was identical to the ones he gave to the four boys. "This will give you all the information that you need to know about your new team."

Ajaya took the folder from Keifer and opened it up. Paige looked down, and she gave a little gasp when she read the information.

"What?" Ajaya asked, worried that there was something wrong.

"You're on Alpha Team," Paige said to her.

"Is that bad?" Ajaya asked.

"Not at all," Paige said as she shook her head. "Alpha Team is like the varsity team. They're the best of the best."

"Really?" Ajaya said. She looked from Paige to Keifer. Keifer gave her a nod.

"Alpha Team gets priority on all missions that come into SCBI Tokyo," Keifer explained.

Ajaya was slightly flushed. "Keifer," Ajaya said to the supervisor, "I'm still a new recruit. Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"When Alpha Team's leader heard that we were getting a Slayer, he demanded that you were placed on the team," Keifer explained to her.

"Who's Alpha Team's leader?" Ajaya asked out loud even though she had the information in her folder. She looked down to see for herself.

"That would be me," A new voice in the room called out from behind Ajaya. She turned around to see Angel and Cordelia walking into the office. "Sorry about our introduction," Angel said to Ajaya apologetically. "Or rather the lack thereof."

"When something comes in between Angel and his hair care products there is nothing that can distract him until the situation is resolved," Cordy said with a smile.

"Anyway," Angel said to Ajaya as he rolled his eyes at Cordy. He leaned up against the edge of Keifer's desk as he talked to Ajaya. "If you haven't figured it out by now I am Angel."

"Ajaya Gupta," Ajaya said to Angel as she shook his hand.

"I know that you are still a recruit and a trainee," Angel said to Ajaya, "But you are also a Slayer, and I've known quite a few Slayers in my life. None of you have ever really needed an extended training period."

"That doesn't mean that we're just going to throw you into the lion's mouth," Cordy interjected. "You're going to be on the front lines for all of our most dangerous missions, but you're going to be there with the finest agents operating out of this branch."

"We want you to feel perfectly comfortable about your assignment," Keifer explained to Ajaya. "If you feel that you honestly can't handle being a part of Alpha Team, we can have you transferred."

Ajaya thought about what they had said before she gave her final answer. "I suppose that I can at least try it," Ajaya said eventually.

"Great," Angel said with a smile. "You can go through a small training session tomorrow afternoon. It won't be that enduring, just something small that we can use to assess your skills for ourselves."

"After that you can start training with the rest of the team," Cordy told Ajaya.

Keifer looked at the clock. It was starting to get late. "I think that we've bothered Ajaya enough for one day," Keifer announced. "We should probably get you settled into a room now." Keifer picked up a data pad and punched up a list of available rooms. "Paige," Keifer said as he looked towards Paige. "You don't have a roommate right now. Would you mind taking Ajaya in?"

Ajaya wasn't sure, but she thought that Paige looked like she was slightly shocked by the idea. She paused for a moment before she answered. "Sure," Paige said. "That'll work."

"Is that all right with you?" Keifer asked Ajaya.

Ajaya nodded. "That's fine," she said, even though she wasn't sure that Paige wanted her as her roommate.

"Hey!" Angel said as he looked over at his bottle of hair gel and back to Keifer.

* * *

Ajaya, with all of her bags in her hands, walked a few steps behind Paige on their way to their room. Paige definitely looked slightly nervous about something.

"Is there something wrong?" Ajaya asked her new roommate.

"No," Paige said to Ajaya. "Well, I mean, not really." Paige sighed as she reached her door. "Just don't judge me, okay?"

"Okay," Ajaya said. She had no idea what to expect to find in Paige's room. Paige sighed again as she swung the door open.

"Oh my God," Ajaya said as she looked at Paige's room. It was like a small library. There were book cases that stretched from the floor all the way up to the twelve foot high ceilings. The book cases covered a whole wall of the large room and all of them were completely full of books. In front of another wall of the room was a table with four of the most powerful computers that were currently available.

"Yeah," Paige said. "Surprise. I'm a nerd."

Ajaya didn't even hear Paige. She was too busy looking through every single book that she saw. All of them were related to all the different maths and sciences. Occasionally, Ajaya would find a book that excited her more than the others. In reality, Ajaya had read most of these books. The occasional few that she hadn't read made her even more excited than the other ones.

"You have a copy of The Complex Universe!" Ajaya said in almost disbelief. "They only published like three hundred of these."

"Wait, what?" Paige said, slightly confused. "Are you trying to tell me that you are a nerd too?"

Ajaya turned around and gave Paige a large grin. "I skipped two grades when I was younger," Ajaya explained. "I'm currently a student of engineering who not only made Dean's List last semester but also got straight A's despite being called as a Slayer right before finals."

"No way!" Paige said in disbelief.

"Yep," Ajaya said with a broad grin. "That's why I transferred to Tokyo. I needed to be somewhere close to my University in India."

"That's great!" Paige said, a little bit too excited then someone should get about math or science. "My last roommate thought I was the world's biggest nerd. I was so afraid that you were going to think the same thing."

"As long as I'm still alive, there is no way that you're going to be able to claim my spot as Queen of the Nerds," Ajaya said to Paige.

Paige gave her new roommate a big hug. "This is so great," Paige nearly squealed. "We so have so much talking to do tonight."

Ajaya was still grinning. "Oh, we will," she said as she began to move towards the door. "But I have to make a call first."

* * *

"What took you so long?" Isabelle demanded of Ajaya. "I thought you were supposed to arrive in Tokyo hours ago."

"I did," Ajaya said to the video screen of Isabelle. "I just had a lot of stuff to do today."

"I see how it is," Isabelle said with a grin. "We're apart for a few measly hours and now all of the sudden you're too busy with your _Tokyo_ friends to call little old Isabelle."

"Isabelle," Ajaya said with a laugh, "Calm down. Breathe."

"Breathing," Isabelle said.

"Good," Ajaya told her. "Anything new going on there?"

"You haven't even been gone for a day yet," Isabelle said to her.

"But you were the one that said that I took too long to call you," Ajaya pointed out.

"That's not the issue right now," Isabelle changed the subject. "What is Tokyo like?"

"Well first," Ajaya said, "Get a good mental image of Fletcher."

"Do I have to?" Isabelle asked.

"Yes," Ajaya said. "Now take away that's stuffy and rigid about him including his ability to clean, switch his accent for Spike's, and add a sense of humor."

"Okay," Isabelle said. Ajaya saw that she was clearly in thought.

"Meet Keifer Price," Ajaya said, "Supervisor of SCBI Tokyo." Ajaya watched while Isabelle disappeared from the screen as she fell over in shock.

* * *

Author's Note: Next chapter things should start picking up and Ajaya will meet Heath.


	4. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I own none of the Mutant Enemy characters. Joss owns them all and I assure everyone that I am getting no money whatsoever from this story.

* * *

Ajaya the Vampire Slayer

Chapter Three

Ajaya stared at the raging alarm clock through squinted eyes from across the room. When Paige had set her alarm for 9:00 she must not have anticipated staying up all night talking about various modern developments in the world of science. Ajaya wasn't the heaviest sleeper and had woken up for the first of the many increasingly annoying tones. She had no idea how Paige could have slept through that noise for three straight minutes.

With a groan Paige rolled over in bed and slammed her fist on the alarm clock. In a shower of sparks, the noise and the alarm clock itself were both dead. Not even waking up, Paige made a few more noises before she returned to her dreams.

Ajaya's eyes were now completely opened. She was going to have to ask Paige a few questions after she eventually woke up. With a sigh, Ajaya reluctantly got out of bed and put on her bath robe. She grabbed a few toiletries from her bag and made her way down the hallway towards the bathroom. When she opened the bathroom door, there were two women in there. A panic quickly ran through Ajaya as she realized that she had met one of them before. She desperately tried to remember the name of the blonde girl with blue streaks and tried not to look paniced as she turned to her and smiled.

"Morning Ajaya," she said with the chipper tone that Ajaya usually had but lacked on this morning. "How did you sleep last night?"

"Good," Ajaya said as she went to the sink next to her and began to brush her teeth. At least if her mouth was full of toothpaste she wouldn't be able to talk.

"Are you ready for your first training session?" the woman asked while she continued to get ready. "Angel said that he was going to run you through a couple of trials before you train with the rest of us."

"You're on Alpha Team?" Ajaya asked as she spit out her toothpaste.

"Yep," she said as she finished getting ready. "Allison Hendricks, witch and member of Alpha Team."

"_Allison_," Ajaya thought to herself. "_Allison Hendricks. Witch with blue streaks. Got it._"

"Have you met Felicia?" Allison indicated the blonde woman in the bathroom with them who was also finishing up. Ajaya shook her head. "Felicia this is Ajaya Gupta," Allison introduced Ajaya. Felicia offered Ajaya a weak smile and a hello before she left the bathroom.

"Vampires in the morning," Allison said as she shook her head. "Not the best people to interact with."

* * *

Heath walked back to his room after a long, warm shower. He was glad that he woke up at the right time to avoid any one else in the bathroom. In the evening that he had spent at SCBI Tokyo, he had already lost count of the number of people that had harassed him. It was incredibly annoying. So he had made one mistake. He had made one tiny error in judgment. It's not like his entire family was without their mistakes.

As Heath opened the door to his bedroom, he was greeted to the sound of Rocky snoring loudly. Heath had completely forgotten about his friend's tendency snore when he had agreed to room with him. It wasn't that it was something that he couldn't deal with. It was just another complaint that he could add to his ever growing laundry lists of things that were currently going wrong in his life.

With a slight rush, Heath quickly got dressed and left his bedroom. He walked over to the next door and put his hand on the knob and became silent. With his advanced hearing, he knew that Dade was still fast asleep in bed. He couldn't tell where Todd was, but he knew that he wasn't still sleeping. Slowly, Heath opened the door and found his friend in a deep state of concentration. What impressed Heath was that he was concentrating while completely inverted and supporting himself with only one hand.

"Are you hungry?" Heath asked Todd from the hallway.

"I could eat," Todd said while his eyes remained closed in concentration.

"Do you think Dade is going to get up any time soon?" Heath asked.

"Think about what you just asked," Todd said as he gracefully flipped over onto his feet with cat like agility.

"Then I guess it's just me and you," Heath said while Todd shut his bedroom door on the way out.

"So I'm willing to bet that you got it worse than I did yesterday," Todd said to Heath in regards to the ridicule that all four of the friends were receiving. "And I'm guessing it's going to get worse before it gets better."

"I just can't wait until everyone gets over this," Heath replied.

"Have you talked to Angel yet?" Todd asked.

"Nope," Heath answered. "I've managed to narrowly avoid him every single time that he tried to greet me."

"And how long do you think you can keep that up?" Todd asked.

"You'd be surprised at what I'll go through to keep away from that conversation," Heath said with a smirk.

"Is that so?" Heath and Todd turned in the direction of the new voice, although they both knew who it was.

"That came out wrong," Heath said to Angel who was giving Heath an almost condescending grin.

"I thought that might be the case," Angel said as he began to walk past the two boys. "You can explain to me what you really meant over breakfast. We'll go out. My treat."

Todd looked to Heath as Angel kept walking. He wasn't giving them a choice.

"Good luck," Todd said to his friend. "Tell me all about it later."

"You're coming too," Angel called from far enough down the hallway that if he were human he wouldn't have been able to hear Todd.

"That's not even fair," Todd complained as he walked with Heath with his shoulders slumped. They both had defeated looks on their faces. "I'm not even related."

* * *

"You have experience with vampires, right?" Paige asked Ajaya as they walked towards the dining room.

"It's kind of in the job title," Ajaya responded sarcastically.

"No," Paige said as she shook her head. "Not like that. I mean have you had experience with souled vampires? Specifically souled vampires while they are eating?"

"Yeah," Ajaya said as she thought about the few times she had seen Nicholas and some of the other vampires during meals. However, the more she thought about it the more she realized that she really didn't see vampires feed that often. "A little. Why do you ask?"

"Some vampires can be really self conscious about it," Paige explained. "They don't really like it when people stare at them when they are eating."

"Oh," Ajaya said as she thought about what Paige had just said. "Why?"

Paige shrugged. "I don't know," she admitted. "It's mostly the M.D. vampires."

"M.D.?" Ajaya asked as she wrinkled her nose in confusion. "There are different types of vampires? How come I wasn't informed of this?"

"Melodramatic vampires," Paige clarified. "They're usually the vampires that were vamped and ensouled against their will. You can identify them by the brooding."

"I'm guessing Angel is the traditional example?" Ajaya asked.

"See," Paige said with a smile. "You're becoming one of us already."

Ajaya laughed as they entered the large dining room. There were three long tables arranged in the shape of a U. In the middle of the tables was a large table full of different foods. Ajaya followed Paige towards the table and grabbed a bagel, a grapefruit half, and a glass of orange juice and waited for Paige to get her breakfast together so she could pick where they would sit.

"You know that you have a session today, right?" Paige asked Ajaya as she eyed up her plate. "A good breakfast wouldn't exactly hurt."

"This _is_ a good breakfast," Ajaya defended her plate. She looked over to the piles of meat that Paige had selected. "It's healthy. Which is more than I can say for yours."

"Some of us aren't exactly tuned in to the mystical slayer power," Paige said while she walked towards a table. "We need to keep our powers up the old fashioned way. With meat."

"Which brings me to my next question," Ajaya said as she sat down next to Paige. "What exactly are your powers? I saw you kill the alarm clock this morning."

"Yeah," Paige said as she took a bite of her breakfast. "That happens sometimes."

"So what was it?" Ajaya repeated her question. "How did you do that?"

"It comes from my grandmother," Paige explained. "She had kind of this lightning toss thing going on."

"Demon?" Ajaya asked.

"No," Paige said as she shook her head. "At least, not specifically. She might have had some demon ancestry. She was kind of just a freak of nature."

"I have no idea what that must have been like," Ajaya said with a roll of her eyes.

Paige grinned. "I don't have anywhere near the kind of power that she had," Paige continued. "She could just point her hand and shoot a lightning bolt. I'm more of the manipulate electronics type."

"Manipulate?" Ajaya gave her new friend a smirk. "Is that what you call melting the clock?"

Paige looked slightly sheepish. "Well," she said between pieces of bacon, "my blows do kind of have a little bit of a bite behind them."

"I'm guessing that's just putting it mildly," Ajaya said as she tore off a piece of her bagel and ate it.

"I'm not really the front lines type of fighter," Paige explained. "I'm more of the sneak in, get the computer files and sneak out type."

"Espionage?" Ajaya asked.

Paige nodded. "Epsilon Team," she told her as she continued to eat from the barnyard on her plate. "It's the spy team around here."

"Well then, let's make a deal right now," Ajaya offered. "If you ever get mad at me, how about we talk about it instead of you breaking into my stuff and revealing any of my deep, dark secrets?"

Paige smiled. "Deal."

* * *

"You are so incredible, Dade," The gorgeous blonde who was hanging on Dade's left arm said to him. "I mean, not only are you the strongest person that I've ever met in my life, but you're also the best looking. How do you do it?"

"What can I say," Dade said in between grapes that another equally beautiful girl was feeding him. "Some people just get dealt better hands in life."

"That is so profound," The brunette that was on Dade's right arm chimed in. "You are so smart."

"Why thank you," Dade said to her. "Very few people ever compliment me on my intelligence."

Dade looked around at the half dozen women who were surrounding him and all looking equally infatuated with him. He briefly wondered where he was and what he was doing there but it didn't really seem to matter. Just as he was about to suggest something very lewd to the girls around him, he felt something very cold and wet that shattered his dream.

* * *

Rocky was sleeping very peacefully in his bed. The lights were off and the only noise that could be heard were the occasional snores escaping from his lips. He was in a very deep sleep and he wasn't going to be woken up very easily.

Duncan, who had quietly entered Rocky's room without waking him up, looked down at the boy who was ten years younger than him and smiled. Holding the glass of ice water that he had in his hand out and over Rocky's head, he paused to enjoy the moment before he emptied the liquid all over him.

Rocky let out an alarmed scream as he shot up in bed. He looked around frantically for a few moments before he could piece together what happened. When he did understand what had happened, his eyes filled with fury as he stared at Duncan.

"Good morning," Duncan said with mock cheer.

"Don't bloody 'good morning' me!" Rocky shouted at his field leader. "What the Hell are you doing in here?"

"Waking you up," Duncan said, not changing his tone. "I figured since you had probably gone out again last night that you would need extra measures to be woken up."

"Okay," Rocky said very calmly. "You need to get out of my room before I started replacing parts of your body with insect pieces."

"Sorry," Duncan said. "I can't do it. You and Dade are scheduled for a training session now."

"What?" Rocky felt the anger inside of him building up once more.

"Did I forget to tell you?" Duncan asked Rocky with concern. Duncan was trying his absolute hardest not to smile but he felt the corners of his mouth beginning to betray him. "I'm sorry, that was my mistake. But you two have your first session scheduled in ten minutes. I mean, we know that you two can handle yourself against a handful of drunken Englishmen, but we need to see how you will handle yourself in the field."

Rocky's eyes narrowed as he took a few deep, calming breaths. "Just please tell me I get to go up against you."

Duncan let out a laugh as he walked towards the door. "You definitely don't want to go up against me," he informed the brunette warlock. "Now get dressed. You need to be down at The Ring in nine minutes."

Rocky stared at the door in disbelief for a full minute before he could react. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he knew that he had to find some way to get back at Duncan.

* * *

The restaurant that Angel had taken Heath and Todd too wasn't a traditional Japanese restaurant. It was a restaurant more in the style of an American diner. Despite being a vampire, there was still something that Angel needed in the morning.

"Thank you," Angel said to the waitress as she refilled his mug of coffee. Heath and Todd offered similar responses as the waitress gave them their breakfasts.

"I still can't believe how much you've grown since the last time I saw you," Angel appraised Heath as he took a sip of his coffee. "Are you as tall as Duncan yet?"

Heath shook his head. "He still has a couple inches on me. I'm taller than Brendan though." Brendan was Heath's other brother.

Angel smiled. "I'm sure he wasn't exactly thrilled when he found that out."

"No," Heath said with a small chuckle. "Not really."

"Where is he now?" Angel asked. "Is he still in Los Angeles?"

Heath nodded. "Yeah," he confirmed. "He's been there for a few years now."

"And I heard that Chloe was made a field leader in Capetown," Angel said as he took another sip of his coffee. "And Kelsey is in Miami?"

Heath shook his head. "She's in Belize now."

"How is she deciding where she wants to be stationed?" Angel asked. "Some kind of travel guide?"

Heath laughed. That probably wasn't too far from the truth.

"Have you talked to any of them since the incident?" Angel tried to bring the topic up casually.

Heath sighed. "_Here it comes_," he thought to himself. "No," he said to his great grandfather. "Just Duncan."

"You realize how much trouble you could have gotten into from that," Angel said. He turned from Heath and looked at Todd. "All of you."

"We know," Heath said. He felt like he was seven again and getting yelled at for not cleaning his room. "It was stupid."

"Heath," Angel made his tone a little more sympathetic, "it's just that you have so much potential. All four of you can make a big difference in this world. I don't want to see all of that go to waste."

"We messed up," Heath admitted. "But it's not like it's the end of the world. It was just one fight."

"It's not the fight that I'm worried about," Angel clarified. "It's your attitude."

"My attitude?" Heath had no clue where Angel was going with his. He looked over to Todd who gave him a small shrug. Todd was beginning to feel very uncomfortable.

"Your brothers and sisters are so full of life and they always seem so happy," Angel said.

"You think I'm depressed?" Heath asked. It was true that Heath wasn't exactly walking through life grinning like an idiot, but that didn't mean that he wasn't happy.

"No," Angel shook his head. "It's not that at all."

"Then what is it?" Heath asked.

"You remind me of people that I knew," Angel told Heath. "You remind me of myself and my son. I don't want that for you."

"Angel, I'm fine," Heath defended himself. "It's true that I'm not any of my brothers or sisters, but I'm okay."

Angel nodded as he took another drink from his coffee. "You have a lot of potential, Heath. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it out of you while you're on my squad."

To Todd's relief, Heath let the conversation end there.

* * *

Ajaya sat nervously on a chair against the wall in the massive room that Paige said everyone called "The Ring." The room was in one of the subbasements of the Asian palace. In the center of the room was a raised platform where two people would go in and fight each other. Ajaya had already watched as a vampire fought a boy a few years older than her, and also another boy around her age who had fought Allison in some kind of magical battle. In both cases the older of the two combatants had won, which made Ajaya nervous for her upcoming fight.

As she sat deep in thought with a piece of her hair in her mouth, she spotted Cordelia walking through the room looking for someone. She held up her hand and waved. Cordelia spotted her and waved back before she made her way over to talk to her.

"Good morning," Cordy smiled at Ajaya. "So are you ready for your first session?"

"I guess," Ajaya answered.

"Are you nervous?" Cordy asked as she continued to scan the room looking for someone.

"Very," Ajaya told her honestly.

Cordy laughed. "I'd tell you not to be, but I don't think that you would listen to me."

"Who are you looking for?" Ajaya asked.

"Angel, as always," Cordelia answered. "He said he was going to go talk to the other new member of our team this morning but he's been gone for a couple hours now."

"There's another new member of the team?" Ajaya actually felt a little bit relieved. It took some pressure off knowing that she wouldn't be the only person who was going to be learning the ropes.

"Yeah," Cordelia confirmed for Ajaya. "He's actually Angel's great-grandson."

"I think I might have met him," Ajaya tried to remember the man she had met the previous day in the entrance hall. "I want to say that his name is Duncan."

"It's actually Duncan's younger brother," Cordelia told Ajaya as she finally spotted Angel entering the room. "There he is," she said as she stood up to walk towards him.

Ajaya lost sight of Cordelia as she made her way through the crowd. Ajaya was glad that there was another new person on her team but she wasn't sure if the other new person was going to be on her level. If he was Angel's great-grandson, he probably had a lot more experience than Ajaya had.

Looking up once again, Ajaya saw Cordelia, Angel, and a third person walking in her direction. She took a very quick breath when she got a good look at the person she didn't know. He was only a few inches shorter than Angel. He had dark brown hair and very piercing brown eyes. His features were strong and he walked almost with a purpose.

"_Wow_," Ajaya thought to herself. She instantly began to blush as she realized that this boy that she didn't know was only a few yards away from her. With movements that were slightly ungraceful for a Slayer, Ajaya quickly stood up to greet them.

"Hi," Ajaya said quickly as she hoped that her cheeks would return to their normal color.

"Ajaya," Angel said as he pointed towards Heath. "This is-"

Angel was cut off by an announcement that boomed throughout the room. Ajaya had heard it before. It was the announcement that came on right before a match that indicated who was fighting who.

"The next match is between Heath Angel of Alpha Team and Ajaya Gupta of Alpha Team," the computer voice announced as Ajaya's nerves shot through the roof.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, I owe everyone a huge apology. I'm really sorry that this chapter took so long to come out. Blame finals, moving, and starting a new job. Hopefully I'm back on my old schedule for writing now.


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